At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Maserati announced that the brand will be getting somewhat of a refresh and makeover in the coming years. As it stands, Maserati currently has 4 models in their line-up: the Levante, Gihbli, Quattroporte and Gran Turismo. Carbuzz had a chat with Maserati’s North American CEO, Al Gardner, to provide some insight as to what is to come with Maserati in the future. If what he says is true, we can expect a new Maserati model every 6 months in the not too distant future.
Currently, Maserati has a partnership with Alfa Romeo in efforts to increase production numbers. However, according to Gardner, that isn’t really what Maserati is aiming for. “Alfa is going to go the heart of the volume. That’s not where Maserati wants to play. Maserati wants to play north of, we’ll call it $75,000 (approx. R1.1 million) because that’s where Ghibli starts. I think we’ll continue to position ourselves as that type of brand that is true luxury and performance with the Italian design, style, sophistication, and elegance. And we can do that and make it ‘affordable.’ It doesn’t need to go lower than that.”
Maserati will be launching what is expected to be called the ‘Alfieri’ at next year’s Geneva Motor Show, but that is not the only new model that the Italian firm is planning on launching.
“Of course, we know that Maserati entered the SUV market with the Levante, and it seems that the Levante will be joined by a few siblings quite soon. The growing segments are in mid-size SUV, full-size SUV, and we recognize that the small SUV is a growing premium segment but we just don’t want to play that. We will leave that to Alfa. That’s their world. We want to go midsize SUV and up, we want to be full-size car and up, and we want to be sports cars. We want Gran Turismo to be exactly what it is today, which is people look at it and go ‘wow’, ” said Gardner.
We can also expect all the current models to be replaced and accompanied by hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric counterparts by 2022. “Look for us to put them in dealerships and into production by 2022,” Gardner stated. “I guarantee we will give you something fun to talk about every four to six months for the next X number of years.”
